The Labor Market and Structural Changes in the Economy: Higher Education as a Sorting Device?

The Swedish employment structure and the role of colleges in preparing people for work is being studied by the Swedish Research on Higher Education program. The project is designed to: survey changes in the Swedish economy and employment structure during the postwar period; assess the extent to which business and industry have given priority to the cognitive function of education, as opposed to the function of creating and transmitting information about the student; and to examine the extent to which higher education has adapted to changes in the employment structure. Topics of concern include: mobility in the labor market, wages at the recruiting stage as well as after the first years of employment, changes in the hierarchy of employees, and unemployment statistics. Attempts by the Swedish government to steer higher education in the direction of vocational training are also assessed. The study is based on the assumption that colleges generate and collect information about the students' abilities, which is transmitted to the student and to employers. Education develops students' skills and therefore increases the individual's productivity. Different theories/models of the role of colleges are discussed, including the human-capital theory, sorting models, and filtering/screening models. (SW)